Just had an interview at a big bank in Toroto for a risk rating position. It didn’t go that well. But I still sent a thank-you letter later on. I mean, it is the rightbthing to do right. The manager will let the candidates know the final decision next Friday. Sigh, dozens of candidates compete for ONE position. Sigh, I would say I am capable of doing the job well and the thing is I don’t think I am a outstanding sales person in terms of selling myself in an interview.
God it’s a tough job market. Jesus would know how many interviews to go before landing a position!
^ back before I decided to give up on returning to Canada, I applied to more corporate finance, IB, etc jobs with literally everybody. I applied for everything from an FI analyst with HSBC in Vancouver, to a treasury analyst with Telus, to god knows what with CIBC, BMO, and TD in Toronto. Not even a phone interview anywhere. Apparently they don’t like krazykanucks, only “sane kanucks”. Best of luck… the finance market in Canada is very small in relation to the number of people. The job market in the US may still be sub optimal, but at least it has a larger selection of companies and jobs.
Well my first job was one I didn’t really want anyway, but the opportunity in big 4 accounting showed up and I had no other options. But in the US I made 15% more than I would have in Canada (starting salaries at those firms are very easy to find). Also after getting in contact with the Ontario CA society, I realised I would have had to spend hundreds of dollars in fees to have them evaluate my coursework and I’d have to take a minumum of 3 or 4 courses on Canadian law, taxes, etc. But if I got my CPA in the US I’d be eligible for full reciprocity despite not knowing sh*t about Canadian stuff. Not sure how that makes sense…
But in answer to your question, yes, ultimately I did. After 1 year in the big 4 gulag I got out to a great role. I make more money, have better benefits, 40 hr week, and great perks. I’m recognised for what I do and was quoted in a published article after only 6 months in my new role. Just to speak to the number of job opps, my company has 10 people in our Canada office (most of who were existing employees transferred up from the US, btw), where as our US offices have nearly 300. We have 4 US offices, but the Texas office is the de facto Americas headquarters.
Settling in Texas was part inertia and part luck. I went to university in Texas and couldn’t think of why I’d live in a different state. All of my professional contacts and prior internships were in Texas. Luck put me into an energy focused role at big 4, then I leveraged that to an energy research and consulting firm. On top of that, cost of living here is dirt cheap. I’m able to live well on only 50-60% of my paycheck, which gives me money to travel, invest, etc. Plus you can’t really put a price on not having to deal with snow. It got down to 40 F (4 C) a couple nights this week and I go out in my leather jacket and put on the heated seat. You adapt pretty quickly to the new world…
In general, accounting gigs are easier to find than front office finance positions. The industry isn’t contracting either like finance. I live in a city than has 10 accounting jobs for every finance job.
Oh I completely agree. I generally see accounting as a low risk, medium reward career. You’re not likely to get rich, but you’ll be comfortable and work a reasonable number of hours, assuming you work for a company and not a big 4 firm. Most of the people I know who left big 4 left to industry for the 9/80 work schedule, better benefits, and in general better work/life balance. I liken the big 4 firms as white collar work camps with inadequate compensation.
As to the OP, I didn’t officially get my CPA license, mostly because I changed jobs just as I was about to get it. I didn’t file the last one form I needed to. I believe I could file it tomorrow and become a CPA, but is simply isn’t relevant to what I want to do long term. Plus I’m not sure my current employer would support it financially or give me the time to do the required continuing education.
On top of being a motivated employee, I am a very friendly and easy-going person. Most people I have met described me as nice. I am capable of taking initiatives to start a conversation, either job related or not.
The point now is to convince them that I have these qualities.
And I hate those “give me an example” types of questions…
Just had the interview done. God the wait now is killing me. I have been thinking about what I did that could potentially harm my candidancy… OMG. it is like right after writing my cfa exam and gotta wait for the test result. Gosh…
Will be a hard weekend to go through…cannot get my mind out of it…cannot relax…
I have been checking my email like every 5 minutes today…maybe an email notice telling me I didn’t make it would be a good idea…at least i could stop wondering…and stop checking email every 5 minutes…
It’s been a weekend. there may be candidates interviewing this week as well. They may not be done their second round yet. Took them 10 days to get back to you the first time remember?
Did they say how long you should take to hear from them? (That is a MAJOR question you should have asked at the end of the interview).
yeah I asked the manager the question and she told me the candidates should hear back from her either that (last friday)afternoon or Monday, which is today. There were only 3 candidates in the second interview and I think the other two were interviewed sometiems earlier than me last week, or on Friday, same day as I was(otherwise the manager wouldn’t mention the decision would be made on friday afternoon or Monday).
I am expecting an answer by email. The worst case, I didn’t make it. At least I can reply saying a thank-you and ask for some constructive feedbacks…
